> Well, the A2232 is a _nice_ design. Because it has it's own CPU to
> handle the ports, and lets the system CPU move data en masse every so
> often, you can support high speeds on many ports even with a
> not-very-fast system CPU. Essentially, you get 7 ports with 256 byte
> FIFOs, and only have to deal with a 50 or 60Hz interrupt rate from the
> thing for all 7 ports. Unfortunately it maxes out at 19.2 (or 38.4
> with the doubled clock hack)

Yeah.  It is a nice board.  Not perfect, but pretty good.  I wish I had
something similar for my pc's and Sparc's.  (I do know how the thing
works.. I slept next to the driver for quite some time to make it work
well enough on our "server" :)

> Are there any PC (PCI or ISA) boards of a similar design that don't cost
> a fortune? Everything I've heard of seems to be either not as smart, or
> far too smart and thus too expensive. The A2232 was really quite good
> value for money.

Hm.  Wish I had the time.. designing a serial card can't be that difficult.
At least not for the ISA bus.  :-)

  -jm

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